Suo Gân (Movie Only) (Empire of the Sun (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Empire of the Sun (DVD)
Date:	06/01/08 (134 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Just a truly wonderful movie

Disadvantages: Long run time

Jamie (Christian Bale) is a privileged, young boy living in the suburbs of Shanghai in 1941. His father is a rich businessman with a large house complete with servants allowing his spoilt son to attend prep school, sing in the choir and dream of growing up to be a fighter pilot. His dreams are shattered when Japanese forces invade Shanghai sparking an exodus during which Jamie gets separated from his parents. Returning to an empty house, he finds the servants ransacking the furniture but upon challenging them, rather than getting the respect he's used to, he gets a slap across the face instead. Eventually realizing that his parents aren't coming back, Jamie ventures into Shanghai, where he is stalked by one of the local waifs determined to steal his shoes. Nearly run over by the American opportunist, Basie (John Malkovich), Jamie or Jim as he is re-named, persuades his new American friends to scout the houses in his old neighbourhood for loot only to be captured by the Japanese and sent to a detention camp. It's here that Jamie is fully exposed to the horrors and remarkable aptitude for survival amongst the victims of war as his unique position in the camp allows him to see both sides of the terrible conflict.

Empire of the Sun was released in 1987, directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Christian Bale, John Malkovich, and Miranda Richardson. Based on the novel of the same name by J.G. Ballard with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard and Menno Meyjes, the movie was critically acclaimed, being nominated for six Oscars and winning numerous other awards. The story is semi-biographical of author Ballard's early years in war torn China.

The acting in the movie is impeccable. From a young Christian Bale experiencing every kind of high and low you can imagine for someone in that situation, as he moves from childhood to a harsh world of war-torn adulthood, to a flawless performance from the magisterial John Malkovich as Basie, the cast deliver an extraordinary story about the plight of people in the direst of circumstances and the victory of the human spirit even in the depths of despair. There are so many credible performances in the movie; from Leslie Philips as the horticultural Maxton to Nigel Havers as the besieged Dr Rawlins; from Miranda Richardson as Mrs Victor to Masatô Ibu as Sergeant Nagata, the whole movie is an imperious imagination of what life would have been like in those darkest of times.

John Malkovich is extraordinary as the scavenger, Basie. With little in the way of morals, his desire to survive appears to know no bounds as, at one point, he orders the impressionable Jamie to steal a potato from the clutches of a dead person in one of the disease-ridden, detention areas. With a glint in his eye and a tattered appearance, Basie is every bit the chancer that would have been common place in those desperate times and yet he still manages to engender empathy from the watching audience, which is a testimony to his portrayal of such a shady individual and yet we understand why he does what he does even if we know that, ultimately, he will let the poor boy down.

What sets "Empire of the Sun" aside from virtually every war movie ever made at that time is its depiction of the enemy and the humanisation of the Japanese soldiers. The film contains one of my favourite scenes of all-time when Jamie wanders over to a Japanese fighter plane at sunset. With it in the process of being repaired, he watches, silhouetted against a dark, night sky as the sparks from the welding light up part of the plane. It's a visually stunning set and typical of the outstanding cinematography of Allen Daviau. Towards the end of the film, Jamie is found standing, staring at Japanese kamikaze fighter pilots taking a final drink, about to get into their planes with a full, orange sun shining on the horizon. As the pilots start to sing, Jamie breaks out into a solo of the Welsh hymn Suo Gân. It's enough to stand the hair on the back of your neck and put a tear in your eye as the camp sergeant looks on at the unexpected admiration and respect paid by the young boy to the Japanese pilots. The planes take off and, suddenly and quite unexpectedly, one explodes in the air as the camp is raided by American fighter planes. As one of the American pilots flies low across his target, he waves to the young boy as the camera sweeps across Bale, the young boy waving back in a moment of euphoria.

It's the meticulous attention to detail that makes the film so good. As the inhabitants of the camp are forcefully evicted and marched to a new destination following the devastating attack by the American fighter planes, Jamie sees a bright light in the sky and equates it to one of the dead, camp inmate's soul ascending to Heaven. A subsequent radio broadcast reveals the Atomic Bomb attacks on Japan and Jamie realises what the bright light was after all. It's metaphorical touches like this that elevate the movie to the status of a classic.

With a wonderful musical score from Spielberg regular John Williams, rated PG and a long, run time of 154 minutes, "Empire of the Sun" is a war drama that can be enjoyed by adults and children generally older than, say 8. It's a sumptuous screenplay with outstanding cinematography and an uplifting message about the human spirit that blurs the boundaries of war time rights and wrongs, humanizing the Japanese forces in the process. From an individual perspective, I've seen the movie several times and enjoy it every time I see it. With seminal scenes that rate amongst my all-time favorites, "Empire of the Sun" is an outstanding movie and must rate as one of Steven Spielberg's greatest directorial achievements.

Outstanding.

Thank for reading

Mara

The DVD is available at Amazon from £14.98

Summary: Overview of movie